With $1.3M purchase, NY produce firm puts down deeper roots in region

One of the largest shishito pepper growers in the country, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Ark Foods, is making a big investment in its farming operations in east Collier County.

The company, which sells vegetables at Whole Foods Market, Costco and Walmart, among other locations, recently bought a 12,000-square-foot packhouse in Immokalee, the nationally-known farming town east of Naples. Ark Foods paid $1.3 million for the property, Collier County property records show.